AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:I honestly don't know. But, I think it's safe to say the talent pool has been watered down somewhat by the expansion of the leagues. Hence Marquis getting 3 year 21 million dollar deals and Silva getting the deal he got. And, Dempster and Lohse getting the deals they got. And, so on and so forth.
Guys also hurt their arm and never pitched again, there were fewer specialists, etc. If it was strictly the US, it would make sense with the population doubling in size that it could be similar (though I don't think it exactly works that way), but it's much more than that. The last team, the Boston Red Sox, integrated when Musial was 38 years old! In 2007 you'd see David Ortiz, Manny, Dice-K, Okajima, Coco Crisp etc etc.
I think what you mention definitely softens the blow in talent disparity, but it doesn't make up for it. However, having said all that, I'm not sure just how this affects guys on the far far right of the bell curve. TTM mentioned Dan Rosenheck, and I know he tackles a lot of this stuff, but I just have never really looked at it that closely.